


Marauders Meet Tom

by ScotlandEvander



Series: Over the Rainbow [23]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-12
Updated: 2013-07-12
Packaged: 2017-12-19 06:50:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/880722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScotlandEvander/pseuds/ScotlandEvander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was not how Sirius guessed Voldemort the Teenager would behave. While there was something defiant to him, at the same time he didn’t seem evil. He didn’t glare and scowl. He didn’t, well, seem like the bad guy. </p><p>He was a teenage boy who reminded Sirius a little of Remus when he went into professor mode.</p><p>It was surreal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marauders Meet Tom

**Disclaimer: If you know it, I fail to own it.**

* * *

Sirius had the oddest feeling. It was a little unsettling. The past few days had flown by in a blur, but now he, James, Remus and Lily were all standing outside a stretch of blank wall on the seventh floor. While James, Remus and Lily had no clue what this special section of wall happened to be, Sirius remembered. He had tried to activate it a few times since he’d followed his brother last spring, but the door never appeared. 

He couldn’t shake the feeling he was about to walk to his death. They were about to meet a ghost like version of teenage Lord Voldemort, for crying out loud.  

“All right, you all remember the story Lily told you?”

“Yeah,” James said, bouncing on his heels. 

James, for some unknown reason, thought meeting a harmless version of Lord Voldemort was thrilling. Since Lily had told them the tale, James had been anxious to meet this “Tom,” who had had a bit of himself trapped in a sketchbook by Walburga Black of all people. 

Though, if someone was going to trap evil in a sketchbook, it’d be his mother. 

Remus nodded he remembered the cardinal rule: Do not tell Tom he grows up to be Lord Voldemort.

Turns out “Tom” hates himself. Only he doesn’t know it. 

Atlanta glanced at Sirius briefly before she looking back at Lily. Lily nodded, pretending to zip her lips. 

Sirius was leery of entering the room to meet this…thing. Even if the thing hated what he grew up to be. Didn’t mean at some point he wouldn’t become the same. 

“Er, where’s Pete?” James asked, glancing around.

Atlanta looked almost guilty for a few seconds before she said, “Uh, I dunno. I couldn’t find him. But, I’d like you not to tell him. I’ll tell him. Promise?”

“Yes,” the four chimed. 

Pete had been absent when Lily had returned. Lily had said the same thing, she’d tell him when she found him. Clearly, Pete had vanished off the face of the Earth. 

Atlanta paced in front of the blank wall three times before a door materialized. It looked different from the door created before. It was more elaborate. She opened the door, holding it open for them to enter. Sirius gasped when he entered the room. It was airy, with large simple windows. The floor was a light colored wood and there was rather modern looking furniture littering the space, but it was mostly clear floor. 

It did not look like anything the wizarding world could dream up. 

The slam of the door caused Sirius to jerk around. Atlanta walked across the floor, her footsteps echoing in the wide open space. 

“This is the Room of Requirement,” she announced. “Tom actually explained it to me. In my…past, I knew it could take on different forms, but did not understand how it worked. I only knew how to make the Room of Hidden Things appear. It’s…full of junk that people have wanted to hide over the history of Hogwarts.”

Pain shot through her eyes before she was able to push it away. That was the room she and Regulus hung out in when they didn’t want to be found. 

“Anyways, I felt this was the best space for y’all to meet Tom,” she pushed on. “So, I guess without further ado…”

She rolled back the sleeve of her robe and shirt to reveal her forearm. Having seen her forearm bare on numerous occasions, Sirius was surprised to see a glittering green and silver snake tattoo wrapping around her arm. He wanted to sneer at it, as snakes were evil, but since he knew who Tom grew up to become, it made sense. 

What really creeped him out was how comfortable she was transporting “Tom” around in her arm. 

“I know you don’t want to come out, but you’re going to, brat,” Atlanta hissed under her breath. “I’ll use my wand.”

Lily looked around, seemingly looking for “Tom.” Sirius stared at her arm, knowing “Tom” was still in there. He could faintly see the magic in the tattoo and it was different from Atlanta’s own magic. Sirius was never very good at seeing magic, which did not bother him, but for some odd reason when it came to whatever was in Atlanta’s arm, he could see it. Kind of. More so than anything else he’d attempted to see magic in. 

Atlanta pulled her wand out and pressed it into her right forearm, right over the center of the tattoo. She yanked it away, scrunching her face up in concentration. Magic poured out of her arm. Once she had control over it she threw it to her side and let it go out of her wand. A boy around fifteen materialized.

“This is Tom,” Atlanta announced, as the boy studied them with dark eyes from behind his fringe. 

He was tall, almost the same height as Atlanta. Unlike a ghost, he wasn’t totally transparent and see through. He was in living color, only blurry around the edges. Sirius looked passed the Slytherin uniform he was wearing and took in his physical appearance. He was thin, but not scrawny. He was a gorgeous— aristocratic nose, chiseled cheekbones, great hair. No wonder his mother wanted to trap him in a sketchbook. He kept his hands clasped behind his back and seemed weary of the older teens gathered in front of him. The expression he wore made him look wiser and older than he appeared. 

This was not how Sirius guessed Voldemort the Teenager would behave. While there was something defiant to him, at the same time he didn’t seem evil. He didn’t glare and scowl. He didn’t, well, seem like the bad guy. 

He was a teenage boy who reminded Sirius a little of Remus when he went into professor mode.

It was surreal. 

“Hi, er, I’m James Potter,” James started, pointing to himself. 

Tom turned his head to him and stared for a moment before nodding. 

“I’m Lily,” Lily announced. She almost stuck her hand out but stopped half way, letting it fall to her side. “I hear you are the brains behind Atlanta’s spells creating skills.”

Flattering seemed to do something to the kid as he perked up a bit, standing up taller and holding his head up higher. He tossed his hair out of his eyes and met Lily’s. 

“We work together,” he announced in a smooth, baritone with hints of aristocratic tones. 

His voice was like…well, sex. Sirius glanced at Remus to see how he was taking it. Remus was white, staring with huge amber eyes at the ghost-like being standing next to Atlanta. Sirius turned his attention back to Lily. 

“Oh, she did say that,” Lily corrected herself, looking flustered. This was new. “She said you’re a genius.”

“A proper genius.”

Well, the kid was full of himself. Like a proper Slytherin. 

“Is there an improper genius?” James cheekily asked. He got a sideways glance from Tom, which caused James to back up a bit. The glance was rather cold and menacing. 

“Shut up, Potter!” Lily snapped, causing Tom to smirk a bit. He turned his full attention to Lily. “I was wondering what you thought about the…Fidelius Charm.”

The what?

The boy stared at Lily hard for a long beat. Sirius had no clue how Lily could remain meeting the kid’s gaze, as Sirius fidgeted and the kid wasn’t even looking at him. For a fourteen or fifteen-year-old his gaze was intense and uncomfortable. The power radiated from it. The longer Sirius remained in the kid’s company, he could see the kid becoming Lord Voldemort. Leave him alone with enough pureblood maniacs, it’d happen. 

“I find that it is flawed,” he said, his tone careful. He cocked his head to the side, his hair moving out of his eyes. 

“Why?”

“How much research have you done on the charm?”

Lily launched into her research on the charm, sighting that it was hardly ever cast or used because the secret is held within a soul and it is only used on a location. 

“However, it’s strong suit is the fact the secret cannot be forced out of the Secret Keeper by any means. It must be given freely,” Lily finished. “I feel this can be improved upon, though. It should be able to hide more than a location. Locations are good to hide, but sometimes a person needs hiding.” 

“Correct,” the boy agreed. 

Atlanta suddenly tossed a box at him. He caught it and stared at her.

“What? Lily was the one who wanted to meet you. James only insisted the others meet you because Lily was meeting you. I bet she knows more about wards than I do,” Atlanta said.

Sirius had no clue what they were talking about. It was clear by her tone she was tempting him. 

“Wards?” Lily asked. 

Or both of them. Atlanta gave off a Tom like smirk. At least Sirius knew she began smirking due to Tom, not his brother. Regulus had never smirked much. 

The boy turned his attention to Lily and said, “Yes. Atlanta and I are looking into developing a ward, or spell, that would repel people who bare the Dark Mark.”

“Genius,” Lily breathed, her green eyes large. 

James groaned and rolled his eyes. Lily and Tom began chatting, Tom keeping hold of the cube Atlanta tossed at him. Atlanta moved across the room and sat down on an odd looking chair. It was constructed out of circles and did not look comfortable. 

“So, that’s, er, Tom?” Remus asked, staring at the boy across the room who was debating with Lily. James was hovering near by, almost looking befuddled. “He seems to be able to work with Lily.”

“This Tom doesn’t hold the same ideals as the one y’all know,” Atlanta explained, lowering her voice to hardly a whisper. “He’s also lived with me for a year. While we still are at odds on many things, Tom can spot someone of equal intelligence. In this room, Lily Evans is by far the most powerful and smartest one here.” 

“More powerful than you?”

“By far.” 

“So, when did Voldy go bad?”

“Shhh.”

“What?”

“He doesn’t know, remember.”

“You do realize he will figure it out someday,” Remus said quietly, sitting on a clear chair across from Atlanta. 

Atlanta shifted uneasily. “Well, we can’t find anything on Tom Riddle, so he assumes he is dead or amounted to nothing, which pisses him off to no end. You should see his reaction to when he hears or reads something about Moldy Trousers and his movement. I can’t tell him that’s who he turns into. The fact Tom Riddle is Moldy Trousers isn’t known where I come from. I don’t think he’ll find out till people start talking about the V word.”

Sirius glanced across the room. Lily had taken a seat at a table that had appeared out of nowhere. Tom was oddly sitting on the chair, though he looked like he was careful not to touch the table. James was lurking over Lily’s shoulder, getting the death eye from Tom every few seconds due to his hovering. 

“He gets right pissed off each time he reads more on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,” Atlanta said quietly. “I don’t say the V word around him because I think he was already toying with using that name when he was fifteen. I’m not sure, so I just don’t use it. He understand the name is feared, so he doesn’t ask who the person actually is. He out right hates the guy.” 

“How is he sitting on the chair and not falling through? I thought he wasn’t solid,” Sirius pointed out, still marveling at the fact Tom was seated. 

“He’s not. That cube I threw at him contains my magic. It allows him to exist without me. I’m pretty sure he put it on the chair and seeped some of my magic into the chair to make it solid for him. If my magic is embodied in objects, they become solid to him. I’m solid to him, vise versa.”

“This is so…weird,” Remus faintly muttered. 

“I developed the cube. All by myself,” Atlanta announced proudly. “Tom didn’t help me one bit.” 

Remus chuckled, finally appearing like he wasn’t going to faint. Sirius collapsed next to Remus in a chair that looked like it wasn’t anything other than a rectangle and dropped his head in his boyfriend’s lap. From his position he was able to keep an eye on Tom and Lily. He caught Tom’s arms going through the table. Sirius let out a bark of a laugh. 

“I never thought the first time I actually met him, he’d be embarrassed because his arms went through a table,” Remus said from above his head, sounding like he was trying not to chuckle. 

The whole afternoon was surreal. Especially when Tom actually smiled for the first time. He had smirked a few times, but when he actually smiled Sirius was sure he’d be able to end world wars by simply smiling.

“You know, I’ve heard rumors he no longer looks like that because he’s so far gone into the Dark Arts,” Sirius told Remus later that night. 

“Who?”

“Tom.”

“Oh. And why are you bringing this up?”

“Because. When he smiled, like when he actually smiled, I’m pretty sure he could cause Death By Smile if he really wanted to. Just smile, and the world would bow down to him.”

Remus stared at Sirius blankly.

“What? He’s good looking, so sue me,” Sirius said, using a phrase Atlanta often used. 

“I plan on it.”

Sirius huffed in annoyance. Remus knew Sirius had no idea what “sue” meant, other than a shortened name for “Susan.” 

“I have a point.”

“Smiling doesn’t cause fear, Padfoot. Voldemort’s whole goal is to rule through fear. No one would ever fear a smiling Tom Riddle.”

“No, but they’d do what he wanted. Believe what he does,” Sirius pointed out. “There is power behind appearance.”

“Says the pretty boy,” Remus mused. “Are you saying I couldn’t control the world?”

“Oh, you could. You’re quietly devious.” 

And Remus smiled that damn crooked smile that always made Sirius’ insides melt. 

* * *

“So, uh, what did y’all think of Tom?”

Atlanta lowered herself onto the bench next to Remus, looking between James, Lily and Sirius. The morning sunshine streamed in through the windows and the ceiling of the Great Hall reflected clear, deep blue skies. 

“He was a prat!” James announced, throwing his arms into the air. “A complete, total prat.”

Lily smacked James. 

“He’s not here,” Atlanta offered. “I left him with the cube in the Room of Requirement.”

“He was surprising,” Lily said, turning her attention to Atlanta. “I was wondering, after we graduate, if I could help out with the projects the two of your are planning. I’m really interested in the, er, Cretin Munchers ward.”

“Cretin Munchers? Is that what he’s calling them now?” Atlanta mused, looking amused. “I don’t see why you can’t lend a hand. What are your plans after graduation any ways?”

Lily shifted and didn’t meet her eyes. “I don’t know. I want to go into healing, I think. I’ve got the OWLS.”

“I’m sure you’ll get the NEWTS,” James said, squeezing her hand under the table. 

Lily wasn’t so sure, judging by her expression. Sirius leaned on his elbows and stared at Atlanta and Remus.

“I thought he was strange. I think he was acting like he wasn’t, well, evil.”

“He is not evil,” Atlanta and Lily said together. 

Sirius wasn’t so sure Tom wasn’t “evil” but there was something off about him. While he was clearly a teenage boy, there was the fact he’d sprung out of an evil notebook spelled by his insane mother and grew up to be Lord Voldemort. 

“Anyways, I want to be a Healer,” Lily went on loudly. “I think. I’m not sure.”

“Well, I’ve no idea what I want to do other than make a lot of money,” Atlanta announced. 

“I thought you were going to be a Spellsmith?”

“Oh, yeah. They make a lot of money.”  

“Is that the only reason you let Tom talk you into it?” Lily gasped. 

Atlanta shifted a bit. “Well, kind of. Custom made spells make one a butt load of gold. I have none. After I leave this joint, I’m out on my rear without a thing other than what is in my trunk.”

The four all gaped at her. They continued till Peter sat down next to Atlanta, looking bemused. 

“What’s going on?”

Everyone snapped to attention quickly. Sirius glanced at Atlanta, who stared at Peter with a look Sirius could not place. He had this inkling she did not trust Peter fully and was not about to share Tom’s existence with him. This annoyed Sirius, but it was her choice. 

“I’m in it for the money,” she said in a strange sounding accent. 

Peter blinked at her. 

“You do know they won’t realize what that is from,” Lily groaned. 

“ _Star Wars_ ,” Atlanta offered. Sirius, James and Peter continued to look blank. “I don’t think I sounded much like Harrison Ford though. More like Jack Nicholson. I don’t know why.”

“Still, love, don’t know who that is,” Sirius said while both Remus and Lily laughed. 

“You’re impression was horrible! For either of them.”

By the time the group exited the Great Hall, everyone had forgotten to tell Peter about Tom Riddle, future Lord Voldemort who happened to sometimes hang out in Atlanta’s arm, but was currently hanging out with a cube of magic in the Room of Requirements. 


End file.
